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Monday, 26 September 2011

Advertisements - are they getting better?

We are most probably all annoyed when watching our favourite TV programmes and those infernal television advertisements come on. Generally if you are watching a tv channel like our SABC then the ad break would happen at the most inopportune time and the volume of the advertisement always seems louder than the programme you are watching.

The ad break often leads to channel surfing, where most likely you are going to find adverts on the other channels on at the exact same time. Annoying as the break is, what is more annoying is the often pathethic advert that seem to be stuck on a loop. These are the advert's played after every other ad at every ad break at the exact same time. Thank goodness for PVR's.

For those people that do not have PVR's and are forced to put up with adverts ruining our tv viewing pleasure there is not much to be done except to sit back and grit your teeth. However, over the last few months the adverts on tv do seem to be of better quality?

There are some adverts in my opinion that are quite bereable to watch. There is the brilliant Tracker advert that goes backwards from an old lady right back to when the lady was a baby. This is an excellent example of looking at a service or product out-of-the-box so to speak. The focus here is not on the 'what' as in recovering stolen vehicles but rather on the 'why'. Why does Tracker recover vehicles - to save lives?

There are many other great adverts that have graced the smaller screens, such as the Berocca advert with two lumberjacks dancing on a log in the water with the payoff line being 'You, but on a good day.' OMO also have a decent ad running with their 'Just one small cap is enough' where the domestic helper smacks the hand of the 'madam' and says the pay off line.

Some other good adverts is the launch of the Heita cellphone network ealier this year - not my personal favourite but the ad was well done. Other popular adverts are for liquor brands like Johnny Walker, Hennessy and the Hansa ads with 'Vuyo'.

Then again there are still the horrible ones like 'Dettol', especially the one where the little boy sneezes all over his lunch and then hands one of his sandwiches to the girl next to him. Not to forget the pathetic 'Mr Muscle' cleaning product adverts with the supposed superhero himself 'Mr Muscle'.

The Loerie awards, held in Cape Town recently, recognises the best of television advertising and other communication mediums the Oscar's of television advertising in Africa and the Middle East. The finalists for 2011 are listed here. http://www.theloerieawards.co.za/ Some of them, I cannot understand but then again I am no expert - I just like what I like.